When plants are grown in a nursery setting, it is necessary to provide a container for the soil, which ultimately forms with the roots of the plant, a root ball. Nursery stock of this type may be transferred from one location to another several times before the plant is purchased and transplanted in a permanent location. It is during the transplanting phase of the process that care must be taken to prevent damage to the root ball which might kill or stunt the growth of the plant. Separating the plant from the stock container or during the above transfer operations is generally when damage to the root ball occurs, and it is these reoccurring problems to which the present invention is directed.
Nursery stock containers which may be disassembled at the transplanting site are well known in the art. However, to date such containers have either not adequately eliminated the chances that damage will occur to the root ball during the disassembly process and the transfer process or the manufacture requirements for such containers, for a variety of reasons, prevents their usage on a wide scale in the industry. For example, nursery stock containers made of metal are expensive to manufacture and maintain. The nature of their construction necessarily places limitations on how the container may be removed from the rootball at the transplanting site. Further, such containers are cumbersome which only adds to their inadequacy as a container when the container must be removed. Prior art containers made from materials such as pressed fiberboard or paper are generally not reusable. Such containers are often times not sufficiently durable to withstand the rigors of the nursery setting where stock is transferred about and finally shipped to the transplanting destination. The above is particularly true of heavier plants wherein the plant may be generally in the weight range of over 200 pounds with a root ball of a size which requires a container with two gallons or more of capacity. Further, if such a container is left to surround the root ball after transplanting in the ground, the growth of the plant is necessarily retarded until the fibers of the container material deteriorate to the degree necessary to allow the roots to be freed from the ball and extend into the surrounding soil.
Thus, problems exist with available nursery stock containers which not only inconvenience the user but also fail to prevent damage to the root ball of the plant at the time of transfer or transplanting. The present invention, however, brings to the state of the art for nursery stock containers solutions to both the manufacturing and use problems of the prior art containers. As will be appreciated from the drawings and a reading of the description which follows, the manufacturing requirements for the present invention are minimal, the resulting structure is durable, and certain portions are reusable. The methods for assembling and disassembling the invention allow unskilled persons to use the invention with ease and without causing damage to the root ball. These and other features and advantages of the invention are explained more fully in the specification which follows.